Category: X-linked Adrenoleukodystrophy (X-ALD)

X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy is a genetic disease affecting mostly young male patients. In its severest form, patients develop a fulminant inflammatory destruction of central nervous system white matter, areas where all descending nerve fiber tracts are contained. Untreated, patients suffering from this disease mostly die within months to few years. The only effective therapy for halting the progression is an early transplantation of hematopoietic stem cells. Though progression often can be stopped this way, any disability that patients had accumulated before treatment recovers very poorly. This is in harsh contrast to another inflammatory disease affecting the white matter, multiple sclerosis. Here, patients often recover very well after an inflammatory and demyelinating bout. The reasons for this difference are not yet understood.

In this project, the team strive to investigate the reasons underlying the apparent lack of regeneration in X-ALD. They will use autopsy tissue from human patients who died of X-ALD as a starting point and let their research be guided by a careful re-examination of pathologic changes in this tissue. In addition, they will use novel proteome and transcriptome techniques that allow a very detailed investigation of molecular alterations in the tissue. In this way the researchers strive to identify novel molecular and cellular pathways of the disease that could be manipulated in order to improve clinical recovery in X-ALD. Furthermore, in their novel detailed analysis of the human histopathology they hope to provide a valuable tool also for other researchers working in the field.

Project financed by ELA up to: 72 375 €

With a combined incidence of 1:14,700, X-ALD is the most common monogenetically inherited leukodystrophy. The disease is caused by mutations of the peroxisomal very long-chain fatty acid transporter ABCD1 that normally imports very long-chain fatty acids into the peroxisome for degradation. Accordingly, loss of ABCD1 function results in accumulation of very long-chain fatty acids in the plasma and body fluids of affected patients. X-ALD shows a striking phenotypic heterogeneity with inflammatory cerebral X-ALD (CALD) being the most severe form. In order to be treatable by bone marrow transplantation or gene therapy, CALD has to be recognized in its earliest stages.

The ultimate goal of this research project is to identify an easily accessible blood biomarker indicative for onset and progression of CALD. If successful, the identified blood biomarker could provide valuable information for decisions on clinical interventions and could also be used as treatment efficacy marker in clinical trials targeting CALD.

Project financed by ELA up to: 29 000 €